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Linton Kwesi
Johnson was born on 24 August
1952 in Chapelton, a small town
in the rural parish of
Clarendon, Jamaica. He came to
London in 1963, went to Tulse
Hill secondary school and later
studied Sociology at Goldsmiths’
College, University of London.
Whilst still at school he joined
the Black Panthers, helped to
organize a poetry workshop
within the movement and
developed his work with Rasta
Love, a group of poets and
drummers. In 1977 he was awarded
a C Day Lewis Fellowship,
becoming the writer-in-residence
for the London Borough of
Lambeth for that year. He went
on to work as the Library
Resources and Education Officer
at the Keskidee Centre, the
first home of Black theatre and
art.
Johnson’s poems
first appeared in the journal
Race Today. In 1974 Race Today
published his first collection
of poetry, Voices of the
Living and the Dead.
Dread Beat An’ Blood,
his second collection, was
published in 1975 by
Bogle-L’Ouverture and was also
the title of his first LP,
released by Virgin in 1978. That
year also saw the release of the
film Dread Beat An’
Blood, a documentary on
Johnson’s work. In 1980 Race
Today published his third book,
Inglan Is A Bitch
and there were four more albums
on the Island label:
Forces of Victory
(1979), Bass Culture
(1980), LKJ in Dub
(1981) and
Making History
LKJ, Johnson’s
own record label, was launched
in 1981 with two singles by the
Jamaican poet Michael Smith,
Mi Cyaan Believe It
and Roots.
During the 1980s he became
immersed in journalism, working
closely with the Brixton-based
Race Today collective. His
10-part radio series on Jamaican
popular music, From
Mento to Lovers Rock,
went out on BBC Radio 1 in 1982
and was repeated in 1983. From
1985-88 he was a reporter on
Channel 4’s The Bandung
File. He also toured
regularly with the Dennis Bovell
Dub Band and produced albums by
the writer Jean Binta Breeze and
by jazz trumpeter Shake Keane.
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Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall in London, the album
LKJ Live in Concert with
the Dub Band was
released independently in 1985
and was nominated for a Grammy
Award soon after. This was
followed by Tings An’
Times in 1991, also the
title of his Selected Poems
co-published by Bloodaxe Books
and LKJ Music Publishers the
same year. In 1992 Linton Kwesi
Johnson and Dennis Bovell
collaborated to produce
LKJ in Dub: Volume Two.
In 1996 the album LKJ
Presents was released,
a compilation of various artists
including Linton Kwesi Johnson.
This was followed in the same
year by LKJ A Cappella
Live, a collection of
14 poems including some
unpublished works. In 1998
Johnson released More
Time to celebrate his
twentieth anniversary in the
recording business. Island also
released a two-CD compilation
set entitled Independant
Intavenshan. In 2002
Linton Kwesi Johnson became only
the second living poet and the
first black poet to have his
work published in Penguin’s
Modern Classics series, under
the title Mi
Revalueshanary Fren.
The BBC made a TV programme
about LKJ’s poetry, shown in
their Profile
series on BBC 4. In this year
Johnson also released the CD
LKJ in Dub Volume Three.
To mark his 25th anniversary as
a reggae recording artist,
Linton Kwesi Johnson released a
CD and, for the first time ever,
a DVD in 2004 entitled
LKJ Live in Paris with the
Dennis Bovell Dub Band.
Linton Kwesi Johnson has been made an Associate Fellow of
Warwick University (1985), an Honorary Fellow of Wolverhampton
Polytechnic (1987) and received an award at the XIII Premo
Internazionale Ultimo Novecento from the city of Pisa for his
contribution to poetry and popular music (1990). In 1998 he was
awarded the Premio Piero Ciampi Citta di Livorno Concorso
Musicale Nazionale in Italy. In 2003 Johnson was bestowed with
an honorary fellowship from his alma mater, Goldsmiths College.
In 2004 he became an Honorary Visiting Professor of Middlesex
University in London. In 2005 Linton Kwesi Johnson was awarded a
silver Musgrave medal from the Institute of Jamaica for
distinguished eminence in the field of poetry. He has toured the
world from Japan to the new South Africa, from Europe to Brazil.
His recordings are amongst the top-selling reggae albums in the
world and his work has been translated into Italian and German.
Unsurprisingly, he is known and revered as the world’s first
reggae poet.
Listen to the Music of LKJ
Linton Kwesi Johnson Links:
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